On Friday night I got things to the post office in time, and ate at Whole Foods, then got over to the Heritage Theater in Campbell. I had an extra bottle of water and a bottle of "Stress B Complex" vitamins for Jeff the homeless guy but he wasn't there, not even his stuff.
The service was nice, as usual, no wine and bread because we were fasting. The ride home, as the ride there, is 1-1/2 hours for me, and when I got back I had some vitamins chased down by a couple of Brazil nuts, and had some tahini, just eaten out of the jar like you're eat peanut butter but runnier, and wine.
The wine was Chianti from Sprouts, and while a red wine it's very dry - good for a low-carb diet. Since my mission here was to get sleepy and get to bed so I could get up early, I drank the whole bottle.
I felt OK in the morning though, probably because of the low sugar content of that Chianti. I'd set my alarm for 7:30 in the morning and it woke me up as I was starting to sleep a little less deeply anyway. My neighbors were already chatting away in Spanish next door which is a fairly nice way to wake up as it's such a polite language.
I was out the door at 6 past 8, and decided to be clever and took Hedding to The Alameda, that to Shasta street where there's a Peet's and got a double espresso and had that with some water. Then I took Shasta street to San Carlos to Winchester and that to the Heritage Theater. I'd worn my jacket but once it was about 9 it was warm enough that I took it off.
It was a full day of services and things. First was a morning service, then a discussion about Israel and "Palestine", then a "musical interlude" with an actual string quartet that was really cool. And I found out about a piece of mystery music. In the documentary about Sergei NaKariakov, in the beginning he's playing this haunting melody, and Lo and behold in one of the pieces the quartet played, there was that melody. So when they were done and they were all packing and taking off, I got a chance to ask the cellist what it was, and he said it's Tchaikovsky's 2nd string quartet. That's so great to know, because now I can see if NaKariakov played through all of it or just did that part with his trumpet or 4-valve flugelhorn or something.
Then there was another kind of service, lots of singing and praying in all of this but the singing was all sad, minor-key stuff, because Yom Kippur is when we apologize for all the things we've done wrong and ask for another year's reprieve to do better.
Finally the part that's "the gates closing" and that's the part where the shofar is blown. Now, they had their standard ba'al tekiah, and anyone else with a shofar was invited to come up to play, plus the rabbi offered the use of his own if anyone liked. So I had mine, and an older lady had one, so I said to her we ought to flank the main guy on each side, and I headed to one side.
The guy blew tekiah, shivarim (although not how I'd do it) and and teruah, and then when he blew tekiah gadol, that's when the rest of us were to join in. So while I had a rough start (drowned out by the others' blowing) I did a decent tekiah gadol, as long or a big longer than the main guy did.
We then put the shofarim away and it was more sing and praying and lamenting and hoping to do better, and finally we were done. Nosh time!
We trooped around to the "multi purpose room" and there was tons of food laid out. I had a big dollop of egg salad and a pickle spear and some cream cheese and lox and capers and red onion slices. And a coffee because it'd been a long day. And went back for more lox and capers and olives. There was actually a bit of leftover lox, that's how generous the spread was.
I got talking with one guy, a Mr. Snider, who lives near Upshift Cycles. As soon as he got a whiff that I'm a musician, he mentioned how he needs to get a "pro" clarinet for his son. This was during one of the breaks in the day. So when we were eating, he sat by me and I asked how old his son is. 18. I said I'd dabbled in clarinet playing enough to know the models of them and so on, and said what he needs is a Buffet R13. He was like, "Yep!" and was glad to talk to someone who knows a bit about them.
My suggestions to him were to check all the music shops but probably better to avoid Park Avenue Music, but that West Valley Music might be a good one because they're very woodwind-centered. I also suggested he look into Jewish charities or things that could help finance it. Apparently the kid's in college and still playing on a Jupiter student horn. Good mouthpiece, but very "eh" horn.
A bit later a tall guy with bad teeth complimented me on playing longer than the main guy. I said I'd started after him, and he said everyone else started after him. I said I might have played as long or maybe a little bit longer, but not as long as it may have sounded like. He said he has a shofar but it always sounds awful when he plays it. I told him to go to the hardware store and get a piece of plastic tubing with an opening just a little bit larger than the opening in his shofar. And practice playing that when he watches TV or whatever, and he'll get the hang of it. So maybe he'll try that.
Then I just had the long ride home, and rather than it cooling off much it just got damp. So it was a long damp ride home. I stopped at Whole Foods for another bottle of Chianti, "Da Vinci" brand, that should be called Da Barely Drinkable". Oh well, at least it's dry-ish?
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